brokering peace with israeli troops still on the border this morning. leaders from israel and hamas sit down to negotiate phase two of the latest cease fire. we'll bring you live to the region. plus, fiscal cliff diving. the countdown to the new year is counting down to economic disaster. what will it take to reach a compromise and pull the country back from the edge before january 1st. the holiday season kicking into gear. we'll take you all around the country. meantime, relative calm between israel and gaza following the cease fire did not last very long. today a clash at the poirder left one palestinian dead and 15 wounded. as usual, we are hearing two different versions of this cease fire version. we have two reporters there.

aman, i'll begin with you. what are they saying about the glash at the gaza border today? >> they're saying that the palestinians, 300 of them approached the israel/gaza border on the palestinian side of it. they went there to access their farm land. that area is considered mostly essentially farm land for those families. a lot of people earn their livelihoods from there. they were going there to protest and demand that they have the right to go as far up to the border as possible. the reason why is because over the years israel has imposed a no go area limiting or prohibiting how close they can get up to that in a sense of 300 meters. it was at that border fence that they came under fire. as you mentioned, one palestinian was killed and several others wounded. now palestinian factions here have called that a violation of the cease fire on wednesday.

they say they will complain to egypt. they will not take any further action. they are citing this as an example of how israel is not to be trusted to uphold the truth. >> that is one side. i'm going to bring you in, martin. what is the israeli military saying about the situation? >> reporter: well, the prime minister's office is saying they're examining what happened. the military says that there was about 300 palestinians approached the fence and that they we they were shouting slogans. one was shot. there were several locations along the length of the fence. they haven't said -- israelis have not yet said officially what they believe happened. they said they're investigating. the issue, of course, is that that no go area which was declared a no go area by israel several years ago specifically because there were so many incidents like this, they wanted to prevent be occasions where the palestinians approached the

fence where terrorists were laying land mines along the fence, also shooting israeli's across the border. they were trying keep the 300 yard no go area. it is palestinian land. because of the volatility of the situation right now it's a very difficult period where both sides are very concerned about maintaining the cease fire. israel is not saying it's a cease fire violation. >> do you hear anything in gaza that pal legs stinians are planning to retaliate against israel? >> reporter: no, none whatsoever. they say they're committed to this truce. they don't want the situation to escalate. there has been some criticism as to why the local police allowed the people to get close to the area knowing that that no go area has been in place. i think the misunderstanding,

including from the brother of the man who died today, he was saying that it was not clear that that no go area was still being enforced after wednesday's truce. for now palestinian factions here denounced it. they have no intention to retaliate other than to simply complain to the egyptians and mark it as a cease fire violation. >> martin, any view that they'll view it as the palestinians trying to instigate violence? >> reporter: no, that's right. no, i don't think there's any sense here that the palestinians, certainly not hamas, was trying to violence. i don't think anyone believes that this particular incident was part of a bigger picture. it does seem to be what ayman said which is people testing the limits of what has happened. a cease fire certainly raises a possibility that things have changed. it may have been smarter for the

police to keep the people away from the border because from israel's point of view it's a sensitive, volatile moment. they don't want more firing across the fence. they want to keep things as they are. each side's investment at the moment, hamas and the israeli's, is to keep the cease fire working. they want it to work. i don't think there's any sense that anybody wants to instigate a breakdown of the cease fire. >> gentlemen, thank you so much. well, despite what we've been hearing, there are few in the region expecting the cease fire to last very long. who exactly is in charge of enforcing the truce and what qualifies as a violation of that truce? joining me is jim frederick and yousef manera. hello, guys. thank you so much for being here. i want to ask you, jim, first, what is it that constitutes a violation of the cease fire? >> well, firing constitutes a violation of cease fire.

i think here we have a dispute over this no go area. >> in app area that has been disputed over for so long. there are reports of skirmishes daily. >> easily more than a decade. what's interesting, as your reporters indicated earlier, the real man to watch here is mohammed morsi who is the safeguard, the guarantor of the hamas side of the cease fire agreement. he will be one of the key factors over there in 48 hours, 72 hours about whether or not this cease fire holds. all indications now in the morning new york time looked very dicey. i think it's been two or three hours. it seems like everybody is not going to hopefully turn this into a cease fire breaking event. we'll have to see. >> you talked about mow home home whom mid morsi. when it comes to enforcing

what's happening miles away along this border, who is it that will do this? who is it that judges, yousef, whether it's a violation? >> sure. the bigger problem is it was very big. the other part of the problem is while the egyptians have good relations with israel and hamas, they have far more leverage over hamas. the so-called buffer zone that we see is exclusively on territory inside gaza. there's no buffer zone on the israeli side. there's no protection for the people of gaza from the israelis. that so-called buffer zone takes up 50% of the arabal lands in gaza which can produce up to 83,000 tons annually of produce. the same sort of restrictions along the border cuts off 80% of

the territorial waters of gaza which restricts the fishing industry. the question moving forward is not simply about ceasing fire but also about easing these restrictions that are ending up resulting in a collective punishment of a million and a half people. >> i spoke earlier to someone who said the area isn't clearly identified. the farmers who go out there to do the job that yousuf is talking about, they're trying to get to their farm lands. whose responsibility is it to make clear what a cease fire means, whether you can go into this area, no go zone, and get to your land. >> that needs to be stage two. stage one is no more shooting. stage two does need to be a definition of territories, permeability of borders and whatnot. i think what we have here is an interesting moment where the united states has always been the senior partner to israel, has always been the one, the

only one that's had any leverage to the degree that it's had any leverage over what israel does and how it conducts itself in the region. now you have a new relationship between these two. just how much leverage does he have. historically mubarak was a historical enemy. now you have egypt setting themselves up as a partner to hamas. >> are you at all concerned about what's going on in tahrir square that the egyptian president may be a bit compromised to help out in the greater area? he's having to stick with things in his own backyard. >> i think what's going on in egypt today is going to have implications for the region. as far as it relates to gaza, when it comes to responsibility, international law dick cates that israel occupies gaza. the question of the well-being

of the individuals under the fourth geneva convention is that israel is responsible for their well-being. moving the situation forward means looking at the collective people that are living there. if we can get at the underlying content of discontent, we can figure it out. up next, with juks weeks to go to the so-called fiscal cliff, can congress cook up the right deal with all the fixings? plus, can economic uncert n uncertainty in d.c. score with the black friday deals. ? news. presenting androgel 1.62%. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%,

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president obama, congressional leaders have just over a month to find middle ground to avert the fiscal cliff. the optimism we heard from leaders two weeks ago is giving

way to the cold reality of all the negotiations ahead. kristin is at the white house. the president is back from his trip. what are senior staffers saying about all the upcoming talks? >> reporter: hope you had a great holiday, alex. they believe that president obama essentially has the leverage in the situation. not only did he win the election having run on a platform of increasing taxes on wealthier americans, if you look at the polls a majority of americans actually agree with him on that issue. as you know, president obama invited congressional leaders to the white house last week. they struck a rare tone of bipartisanship after that meeting. then as you point out, seems like both sides sort of went back to their respective corners and democrats really digging in their heels on entitlements, republicans digging in their heels on the issue of taxes. we're told that aids on the hill are trying to work through a couple of compromise scenarios, especially on the issue of taxes, that would essentially

allow taxes to go up on wealthier americans without increasing the rates. there are a couple of ways that you can do this. one would be to roll back tax breaks that will wealthier americans get. another idea is to possibly tax higher income earners on the lump sum of their salaries. so they're sort of batting some of those ideas back and forth. one component though, alex, that is giving folks around here some optimism, speaker boehner and majority leader eric cantor seem to be working in lock step on these issues. compare that to the debt ceiling fight of 2011 when they weren't on the same page, when it was tough to get compromise. aids on the hill tell me that this is really a marked difference from what they saw back in 2011 so that is giving some lawmakers, some folks here at the white house some hope that there will be able to be some compromise specifically within the house of representatives in terms of working out this issue. there is a lot of pressure on all of the people who are working on this because if they

don't get a deal done by the first of the year economists are warning that the country could slip back into recession. we could see unemployment go back up to 9.1% and, of course, that would be bad politically for all the people involved in these negotiations. i think there is a sense of urgency to get something done, but they certainly have a long way to go. they're still hammering out the finer details. >> there's five weeks and it will probably take a large part of that. >> reporter: absolutely. >> kristen, thank you so much. joining me now to discuss all sides of this negotiation, jared bernstein, the center of budget priorities. jared, good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> want to talk about big picture projections. you heard kristen making that comparison to what the fractured nature of the house was in 2011 versus right now. do you think that you're into more cohesive tone and something really will get done? >> i think there is a more cohesive tone and i actually

think we'll probably solve this sooner than later. the question is does that mean before we actually go over the cliff on january 1st? i still think unfortunately we may end up going over that cliff. if there is a plan in place, maybe it's not completely signed and stamped yet. the economy won't go into recession on january 2nd. >> really? j is that because so many people say that it will, jared. why do you think it won't? >> okay. because people conflate going over the cliff with going over and staying over the cliff and they're different. this is actually right out of the congressional budget office's document that many folks are quoting from including you guys just a second alg. the cbo prediction of a recession and unemployment going up to 9% is a scenario in which we go over the cliff and stay over the cliff for all of 2013. if we go over the cliff and we're able to essentially take away the kinds of very sharp tax

increases and spending cuts that kick in right away, pretty quickly, say within a month or so, then it's not going to be great for the economy by any means but it won't be recessionary. >> jared, let's say that -- do you think the possibility of a stopgap, something that gets done to partially keep us from going over the cliff so we're just like hanging there at the beginning of the year and then we finish sometime january, february, how likely do you think that is? and if that is likely, why then do we even need -- what is it that keeps us from getting it all done by the end of the year versus potentially mid january? >> well, interestingly, once you actually go over the cliff, tax rates will reset. that's 400 billion of the 500 billion. that means that after that, if you're in congress, this sort of sounds silly but it's true, if you're in congress you can reduce taxes on january 2nd relative to the new rates that

prevail starting then. so you can call yourself a tax cutter even though really the taxes have reset for a day or two. think of it this way, on december 31st the top tax rate is 35%. on january 1st the top tax rate is now about 40%. so you have this whole new baseline and you can say on january 2nd, hey, everybody, we're cutting taxes to get back to where we need to be. it's a bit of a kabookey dance. >> with that whole kabookey thing, if that's set one way january 1st, is that what's then in effect come hell or high water when people are paying their taxes april 15th or is there negotiating room ahead? >> no, that's kind of exactly the point. any changes that are made once we go over the cliff will be pret throw active. when you sit down in april of 2014 to fill out your taxes for 2013, they will be taxes that reflect all the agreements that will ultimately solve this thing

and i am confident that we will ultimately solve it, i'm just not sure we'll solve it on december 31st. even the withholding tables, your paycheck should actually reflect the higher taxes that set in once we go over the cliff. the treasury can put that off for a few weeks. none of this is pretty. it's actually ridiculous, pretty dysfunctional politics. we set this crazy trap for ourselves and we're about to inflict a wound that it doesn't need that. we can engage in a set of ma shin nations that look like a fiscal slope and erosion that we can reverse quickly if we can make compromises. >> i can see why you're a contributor to our sister station cnbc stuff. you put it out there straight and make it understandable. i appreciate that. >> take care. coming up next, mom and pop shops ready to ring in the holiday shopping season. you're going to find out how to make it big on small business saturday. plus, succeeding secretary

of state clinton. more ahead on msnbc. >> announcer: brought to you by american express founding partner of small business saturday. on november 24th, do your part. get out and shop small. visit shopsmall.com. into their work, their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors.

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call today. ♪ ♪ you don't know, oh, you don't know ♪ ♪ oh ♪ that's what makes you really bull ♪ >> they rock right there. well from overeating to overcrowding. if you don't want to fight the crush of shoppers this black friday, consider heading out tomorrow to support your local mom and pop stores on small business saturday. that's when many locally owned stores will be offering wig discounts. j.j. ramburg, host of msnbc "your business." good morning. very early out there in the l.a. area. >> it is early. >> i know that you're going to

get out there early tomorrow. we have the black friday. we have cyber monday coming up in a few base. small business saturday, why the need for that? >> well, look, there are a lot of small businesses out there that don't get the same kind of press as the big box stores because we are watching all these people rush to open the doors to get these good deals. small businesses are the ones that need the support. they need you out there shopping because these small businesses are the ones that really help your community. small business saturday is about deals. a lot of people are using this as a marketing opportunity, but it's really about supporting your community and the organizations that support your community. >> in addition to that, is there somebody that's a small locally owned store that will offer local consumers something that the large businesses can't? >> yes, absolutely. this is why small bits saturday is so great. you can draw people in with a

great deal on small business saturday and then win them over with your customer service, with some other amenities that you may have at your store that they might not get at a big box store. here's a chance for small businesses to attract you and then keep you. >> you know overalthough in terms of the national economic picture, you can't forget all the talk about the small business owners this election year. how important is it to support the small businesses to the overall economy, not just locally? >> okay. well, when we talk about jobs, small businesses are the ones that are providing jobs right now. they employ half of the economy. but think about your own community. let's localize it for a minute. think about your community and what the small business means to you. think about your local coffee shop, local boutique, local pet store. think if those disa erred poo. that's why it's important. >> this small business saturday, it's been around a couple of years, right? how successful has it been? >> it's three years old and it's been amazing to see how this has

taken off. now a few years ago when it first started we were hearing people talk about it but nothing like this year. every time i turn on the radio i hear another shopping mall that focuses on small businesses offering great deals and more and more people talking about how they're going to go out on saturday to support their local businesses. >> it's all good. i know that your voice is joining in the chorus. thanks, j.j. great to see you. safe travels back to the mothership. now for a check on other headlines across the country. folks in southern new jersey woke up to a jolt. 2.1 magnitude earthquake. no reports of injury or damage. moving to east texas. interstate 10 is open this morning after this horrific chain reaction crash involving 150 cars, two people died, more than 100 people injured in the thanksgiving morning pileup. and the giant fire that will

top one world trade center soon will be in new york city. the 408 foot arcane tuarcane textural apex is on a barge heading to new york. four years and counting. the gop is plugging its 2016 comeback. we're looking at the christmas tree. it's taking a stroll there into the white house. it will be met by the first lady. i believe it's a 19 foot spruce fir if my memory serves me correctly. bayer? this isn't just a headache. trust me, this is new bayer migraine. [ male announcer ] it's the power of aspirin plus more in a triple action formula to relieve your tough migraines. new bayer migraine formula. in a triple action formula to relieve your tough migraines. on black friday, it doesn'ty bird...or matter,liest bird? as long as we end up here at 5 a.m., or at homedepot.com, starting thursday.

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we have a panel. hello, you guys. good to see you both. >> good morning. >> david, listen to susan rice answer a question about john mccain, let's play that. >> i have great respect for senator mccain and his service to our country, i always have and i always will. i do think that some of the statements he's made about me have been unfounded but i look forward to having the opportunity at the appropriate time to discuss all of this with him. >> a very gracious statement there considering the fire she's come under. how far do you think senator mccain and senator lindsey graham are going to take this fight if she is nominated to replace hillary clinton. >> well, no. i mean, there's a clear question that's at stake. she was in a position of turning for t interpreting for the american public a major foreign affairs event. there are a lot of questions around that and what senator mccain and graham are focusing on is we need a lot of those questions answered before they can move forward.

she's going to have to deal with that. having said that, it is not personal. it is how did she perform in terms of her role in terms of presenting that information to the american public. >> but david she has said, and others have backed it up, that she was given limited information. she was given that which was not classified. those were the talking points, that's why she was sent out. >> and if that's the case, then everything is fine, but i think that has not been proven. congressional investigations are occurring in fact looking into the intelligence. look, if she simply laid out what she had been given in terms of intelligence, then that's not her fault. if she had some understanding that wasn't the case, that's a different situation. that's what we have to get to the bottom of. >> okay. should the president be looking for a fight over a cap nent nomination. is john kerry with years of experience in foreign affairs, would he be an excellent choice to replace secretary clinton? some would think he might even be better, weigh in on that?

>> i think senator kerry or ambassador rice seem to be the two names. i think either of them would be a tremendous choice for secretary of state. and, listen, to what david just said, i think he said it's not personal. it just sounds personal when you hear john mccain and lindsey graham talking about it. they're not given the same tempered measured language that david just gave. they're pretty insin deair ri. that's what people are saying. there are still some questions out there. those questions are being answered. i think ambassador rice was pretty clearly speaking based on the intelligence that she had at the time. for them to come out and say she's utterly unqualified as senator mccain said, that's just politics. i think it's time to move past that. >> i want to look a little further down the road to 2016. mo, you've worked for hillary

clinton. does your krystal ball tell you we're going o see new faces or might there be a clinton and a bush trying to reach the oval office? what do you think about that? >> i think my krystal ball is pretty foggy these days. but i'll say this. of course there's going to be some new faces and secretary clinton has said pretty clearly that she has no intention to run. she don't want to run. maybe that changes, i don't know. there's plenty of time for that to be decided. >> yes. >> but there are going to be some new faces on both sides of the aisle. there's some rising stars in the represent tan party. there's some rising stars in the democratic party. there's a lot of 2k3wr0u7d be to cover between now and then. i'm sure the best candidates will emerge soon enough. >> david, give me your sense of jeb bush. do you think he's really what republicans want? >> look, he was a terrific governor of florida. he is well liked, well respected. he's got a great mind. i think one of the silver linings in this election, and

there weren't many, we have a terrific bench when you look at 2016. when you look at rubio, christie, we have a wonderful bench. at one level looking forward to 2016 saying who emerges out of that group. >> all right, guys. good to see you both. >> thank you. >> have a good one. thousands of men and women serving in the military away from home this holiday weekend. they have less of the comforts of civilian life behind, we're told how the new york jets brought an american tradition to the battlefield in afghanistan. >> reporter: each jersey has a number 12 on it signifying the 12th man letting these service members know that their sacrifices have not been forgotten. >> thank you very much. happy thanksgiving. >> out here in the army, coming and doing an event like this, you're around your military family. >> thanksgiving day, for years i've been playing football in the morning and watching it in the afternoon.

>> from kabul, afghanistan, happy thanksgiving! >> football aside, this is where the real thanksgiving takes place, the part with the food, at this dining facility. 98 men have been working really hard to bring all the trimmings to more than 2000 coalition members including turkey, ham, even pumpkin pie. >> i think it's awesome. it kind of blew me away to come in here and see everything like this. they like to bake for the holidays. seeing the cart station and the turkey. it's cool. and joining me now, a veteran himself, ramsay silloman. thank you for joining us, ramsay. happy day after thanksgiving to you. >> alex, happy black friday to you. thanks for having me. >> i know that you served in both iraq and in the marine corps. what is the hardest part about serving far from home during the holidays? >> well, i think that clearly

it's being away from family. i was deployed in iraq during the christmas season, missed christmas, missed thanksgiving, new year's, the birth of my son. having life go on without you back home is really pretty difficult and especially if you're in the spartan conditions that we were in and a lot of the troops are in afghanistan right now. >> yeah. >> it makes it all that much more difficult. >> ramsey, it's not just you when you're out there, but it's your loved ones at home who see that empty place at the table. they're thinking of you in those spartan conditions and it's tough. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, for all of the events there's always an empty place at the table. and for a lot of americans that plates will always be empty because their loved one has given the ultimate sacrifice in the conflict. so it's really something that

strikes a cord at home too, but it's striking an increasingly smaller and smaller percentage of the population. so it's something that not a lot of people can relate to. >> but you know what we all can relate to is that we ought to be grateful for the service of hose who serve in the military. so when you guys come home what is it you need most from citizens here in the u.s. to help ease that transition? >> absolutely. i mean, the american public has been incredibly supportive, even if they have not been supportive of the conflicts, they've been incredibly supportive of the men and women who are overseas and serving in the military. and one of the things that is really important is when service members come home and they reintegrate, whether they stay on active duty or whether they particularly get out and try and go back to civilian life, that the people understand that there is a transition there. especially as we talk about

increasingly austere budgets for the federal government and cutting veterans affairs and programs, that people understand that that really makes a huge impact on a very, very difficult time when you're really trying to re-establish an entirely different life. >> and a sense of normalcy. a lot of it is about getting to routine. that's a big part of the military. that means jobs. is it finding creative ways to take that which people have learned while serving overseas and let them take that and run with it back state side? >> sure. i think it's a little bit of both. one of the big differences is that, say, after world war ii all my great uncles and my grandfathers, they all served in the military. they were 16% of the population. everybody knew somebody who served or had served themselves. reintegration was easy because everybody had a firsthand experience in some manner.

whereas, now there's less than 1% of the population that is serving. some of the skills aren't necessarily understood. the moss, military jobs don't necessarily make sense to hiring managers or people in the business community. that's something we've been working to address with our corporate partners and legislation trying to bridge that gap. people in the military are really well trained, well experienced and do a lot of the staying jobs in the military. mechanics, network engineers and making that understood. they've been trained at taxpayer expense and have a ton of experience. >> they're able to give back to the community. thank you for your time not only serving but also on msnbc. next up, the obama administration. past, present and future. what's really on the line in the president's second term?

president obama's only a little more than two weeks into his term. we've seen how unexpected news can divert his attention. from the sex scandals that brought down general david petraeus to the conflict in benghazi, libya, and to the u.s. brokered cease fire in israel, the president is eyeing his legacy while balancing outside events as well. joining me is polite particular key's tim mass. good morning, tim. >> good morning. >> let's talk about how these events truly keep the president from accomplishing his agenda. how flexible does he have to be? >> everything in his second term is how this grand bargain takes shape. there's a lot of trust that needs to be built. you just can't avert this coming economic catastrophe without some deal between republicans and democrats.

that will pave the road ahead. >> that was fiscal cliff related. that's another thing going on. what about the president in terms of his second term. he talked about this in his first press conference since the election. let's listen to that. >> i'm more than familiar with all of the literature about presidential overreach in second terms. we are very cautious about that. >> cautious. is that why the president has not been specific with laying out the promises or the demands and saying this is what i will do over the next four years? >> bell, that >> well, that's part of it. you can't escape the fiscal cliff. he has to build in roads with moderate republicans and democrats. get them on board some sort of legislative coalition to get things done. he doesn't want to over promise and under deliver. if he can't get through the republican house, he is not going to be accomplishing much at all in the second term. >> yeah, listen. i'm sure that you saw the recent

political article which outlines second term curses. looked at nixon's falling. what can we learn by second term presidents? what's the lesson for obama. >> not to get come place sent. you don't have to run for re-election. this is the time to be ambitious. this is the time to be very clear about what your goals are and what you need to accomplish going forward. he needs to display a leadership role on this fiscal cliff stuff. republicans want it. you should expect to see him do that in the next couple of months. that will set the tone for the second term. >> can i ask quickly about what the obama campaign sees as their biggest threat to the second term? here's what jim massena said. take a listen. >> we were asked about our

concerns about huntsman. i think huntsman would have been a tough general election candidate. i can tell you he's a good guy. we looked at his profile in the general election and thought he would have been difficult. >> what's good about huptsman that makes him a good candidate? >> he wasn't good enough to get the nomination. the idea that moderate republicans are in vogue now. i think you're increasingly seeing that to be the case. a lot of people are saying the last four years haven't been so good for the republican party. you can see that in the electoral results. tim mak, appreciate you waying in. >> thank you. up next, shoppers are making their list and checking them twice. what do you need to know to survive the holiday buying system. why thousands of walmart workers are walking off the job. keep it here on msnbc. into their work,

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walmart workers staged walkouts across the country in protests over expanded hours on thanksgiving. there were walkouts and protests in two others. the demonstrations are part of a broader campaign of the company's treatment of workers. despite the walmart protests, holiday shoppers lined up outside the doors. they were hoping to snag the black friday bargainings. jane wells is joining me from outside a best buy in southern california. jane with an early good morning to you there, what kind of crowds are you seeing at best buy? >> reporter: right now, alex, you can see, it's pretty light. the line right now maybe only about 20 people. i'm going to come over here. what's your name. >> liz. >> what did you buy? >> i bought a laptop and wep cam. >> where were you earlier today? is this your first stop? >> i'm coming from work. i work at the pavilion mall. >> how long did it take you to

get through the whole store? >> through this store? >> yes. >> about an hour. >> very good. thanks. enjoy yourself. it was a very different story earlier. when you talk about people walking out of walmart, employees, customers were walking out of best buy early this morning when they got here at midnight. they found that the wait in line itself after you got everything you wanted was taking in some cases over two hours. and we also spoke to the very first guy in line, alex. his name is jason mclellan. he was here since sunday night at 10:00 p.m. 98 hours until the doors opened and here is the bootie he got and how much he saved. listen. >> how much did you spend? >> 400 bucks. 355 to be exact. >> how much do you think you saved? >> probably about 700. >> and what are you going to do with it? >> go to disneyland. >> so i figure he saved $700. he was in line be for 98 hours.

that worked out to $7.18 an hour which is below the minimum wage. >> he had to burn some vacation days. he seemed pretty tired. hey, he shopped till he dropped and that's all good. jane, always good to see you. thank you. take care. >> you too. little more than 147 million people plan to shop and spend this black friday weekend. where can you find the best deals? i'm joined here by regina lewis. hey to you. >> hello. >> it's time to find a bargain, how do you find them? >> you have to have a gallon plain. it is a good time to shop. a lot of people second guess themselves. it is a promotion, there's no doubt about it. they took 500 products where they offered it for less at other times of the year even by some of the same retailers. 1/3 of the time that was the case but within pennies and dollars. it is a great time to shop. there's a lot of sale time to work with. because thanksgiving is early,

as is black friday, there are four more fridays left. so a lot of time to come. people are shopping around their paychecks. that's the other thing. in a down economy, very cash centric. if i get paid on friday, that's when i'm going to shop. >> shopping day. >> because i don't have a credit card or i'm adverse to using one. >> you heard that guy from jane's report. he bought 400 bucks and saved 700. that's ginormous. >> is it better to go to the stores or do it online? >> the deals tend to be difference. there's a phenomenon of showrooming. best buy has struggled it. they go and look and shop online. in some cases there's no secret to t. they're revealing them on line. you can search best buy black friday. >> now you make me feel guilty because i've done that. >> they know that. you're going to start to see

stores be smaller and smaller footprints. >> my fault, great. >> what areas of retail do you find the best game? >> electronics are very hot. not so much. that buying is usually dictated by when your service plan is up. hard gift. tvs, not a great gift. last generation tablets and ipad touches and readers. the nook for example is on sale at walmart. so is the ipad 2. notice i didn't say ipad 3. >> yeah. >> whatever was the previous version is where you can get the best deal. >> almost like buying a car where they're trying to clear out the previous years. >> if you're buying it for a youngster, a lot of people are buying it for 10, 11, 12-year-olds. get the last generation. >> i completely agree with you. >> do you think that consumers who are going to gamble will say we do it right now or we'll wait because they'll mark down

further? >> i think you can always play that game and, again, there's a ton of field time for retailers who can wait until the 267th frankly if you're buying things that your family needs or you have to beat the deadline. how are you going to pay for it and pay for it. if you are trying to spread out your spendings, it's not a sign of a healthy economy, people are shopping around their paychecks. you see it in particular at walmart, friday, friday, friday, the 1st of the month and the 15th. >> "usa today's" contributor, regina lewis. there's much more to come including new trouble at the gaza boarder. what does truce mean for politics here at home. you're watching msnbc. as long as we end up here at 5 a.m., or at homedepot.com, starting thursday. where prices have been cut, chopped, and sanded... on the most powerful tools that cut.

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